Pouring out his service to Samaritan House

on Friday, 16 May 2014.

Every two weeks, Randy Wambsganss buys 80 gallons of two-percent milk, loads the crates onto his pick-up truck and makes a delivery to Catholic Charities Samaritan House homeless shelter in downtown Denver. He's done it for 15 years.

"Many years ago, we found out that Samaritan House was a very, very worthy cause," said Wambsganss, interviewed earlier this year after driving 30 miles from Parker to Samaritan Houseto make a Saturday delivery.

"We asked them straight up, what is it that we could do to help Samaritan House: was it clothes, was it food, was it diapers? Unbeknownst to us, it was milk." Wambsganss, 51, buys the milk with a King Soopers loyalty card that supplies funds to Catholic schools, most recently Our Lady of Loreto Catholic School in Aurora.

Wambsganss is president of Glacier Construction Co. in Greenwood Village, which he founded in 1997, now employing about 80 people. Wambsganss and Glacier are intertwined with service to others, contributing to many community organizations and participating in projects ranging from disaster relief after the 2008 tornado in Windsor, Colo., to a trip Randy took in 2013 to India in support of Water for People.

Raised Lutheran, Wambsganss came into the Catholic Church five years after his 1990 marriage to Patricia, a cradle Catholic. They have four children, ranging in age from eight to 22.

Given his family and business responsibilities, Wambsganss is plenty busy and perhaps could have transitioned over the years from delivering milk himself to making a donation for that purpose.

"It's probably more just the service, getting involved, you get to meet good people down here," he said, when asked about his labor. "You're right, anybody could write a check and make a difference. I think it's better to actually get involved, get your hands dirty, maybe even get a blister on your finger. And then you truly appreciate the value of what you're doing."